Personal Reflections: Innovation is to pupa as Change Agent is to Butterfly

For many years, being considered innovative was central to my identity. I thrived in roles that let me bring new ideas to the table, challenge the status quo, and carve out unexpected paths forward. Whether I was working on the front end of the business, offering a different perspective in team meetings, or serving as the proverbial square peg in a round hole, I relished being the person who could see what others couldn’t.

But above all, I longed for the opportunity to lead innovation. To not just come up with ideas, but to shape how an entire organization thought about, approached, and implemented innovation. When I finally got that chance as Global Vice President of Innovation at Daymon Worldwide, it felt like a personal summit.

And then something unexpected happened.

I changed.

Not overnight. Not in a single meeting or on a particular day. But slowly, I began to realize something that completely shifted my perspective: innovation leadership is not about being the innovator. It’s about making everyone feel empowered to innovate. The more respect I received in my new role, the more I felt responsible for showing others that innovation doesn’t belong to one person or one department.

I didn’t have the language for this shift at first, but then something I tweeted in 2009 helped crystallize it:

Innovation is to pupa as change agent is to butterfly.

At the time, it felt like a clever analogy. But the more I thought about it, the more it captured what I was experiencing. Innovation, as exciting and powerful as it is, is only the beginning. It's the potential. It's amorphous, often misunderstood, and frequently debated. People spend so much time trying to define it, justify it, and prove its value. And even when you succeed, someone inevitably questions, "What makes what you do any more innovative than what I do?"

That debate is exhausting. And largely beside the point.

Because what matters more than innovation itself is the ability to foster a culture of change. A culture where people feel trusted, encouraged, and inspired to take ownership of new ideas and ways of working. That’s where the role of the change agent becomes vital.

Change agents don’t just generate ideas. They nurture ecosystems. They create trust. They challenge assumptions. They help others see that the power to innovate doesn’t live in a title—it lives in everyone.

This was the real evolution in my leadership journey. I stopped trying to be the most innovative person in the room and started focusing on how I could help others bring their ideas to life. Because if I could get 1,000 people to be 5% more innovative, the impact would far outweigh anything my team and I could do alone.

One of the most meaningful moments of my career came during a conversation with a colleague who asked me about my work at Daymon. I shared my philosophy around innovation culture and trust, and after a few minutes of back-and-forth, he paused and said something that stuck with me:

"You know, I’ve sat in front of a lot of innovators in my day. Most of them talk about innovation and strategy. You're one of the only ones who talked about people and culture. That’s different. That’s refreshing."

It was in that moment I realized: I had hatched. I was no longer just an innovator. I had become a change agent.

As leaders, we often chase the spark—the idea, the product, the pitch. But real leadership is about building the conditions where sparks catch and spread. Where people feel safe to take risks. Where trust fuels creativity. Where innovation is not an initiative, but a shared mindset.

So if you’re leading innovation today, I encourage you to ask yourself: are you chasing butterflies, or are you helping them hatch?

Because the future doesn’t belong to the loudest idea in the room. It belongs to the leaders who help others fly.

Final Thoughts to Consider

The journey from innovator to change agent is one of humility, service, and ultimately, transformation. It requires letting go of the need to be the source of all ideas and embracing the role of enabler, coach, and cultural architect. If you find yourself in a leadership position, remember this: your legacy won’t be measured by the brilliance of your ideas alone, but by the environment you created that allowed others to shine.

In the end, butterflies don’t emerge because someone told them how to. They emerge because the conditions were right. And as leaders, we have the opportunity—and the responsibility—to create those conditions every single day.